ANDROID

Samsung and others OEM`s to boost sales in Europe, thanks to the iPhone 5 LTE limitations.

The European GSM model of the iPhone 5 supports LTE in the 850 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2.1 GHz bands. Those bands can be used by relatively few operators in Europe, including EE in the UK and Deutsche Telekom in Germany. Vodafone and Telefónica will be restricted to offering the latest Apple smartphone with access to their slower 3G services.

This iPhone 5's European LTE limitations will "push Vodafone and many other European operators harder into the arms of Samsung," especially as the South Korean company's popular Galaxy S line of phones includes an LTE version that is compatible with their networks, Robin Bienenstock, a London-based analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein, told Bloomberg.

The LTE limitations could also boost the sales of Nokia and HTC, which have each recently unveiled new high-end and mid-range smartphones running Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 software.

In an attempt to sidestep the issue, Telefónica's O2 UK said it plans to offer iPhone customers with a long-term contract the chance to upgrade to an LTE handset once the operator's own LTE service is launched. A company spokesman told Bloomberg that the operator will offer 10 per cent towards buying out the old contract and will pay the taxes.

Vodafone and Telefónica already offer LTE smartphones from Samsung, LG and HTC that can access their LTE networks using frequencies other than the 1800 MHz band.

However, Bienenstock told Bloomberg: "The question for operators now becomes in the near term--how sticky is Apple's software versus the better speeds of the Samsung Galaxy's, and how much subsidy will be put behind this?"

So, some of Europe's leading operators will likely offer cheaper and more varied alternatives to Apple's new iPhone 5 due to its limited support for European LTE frequencies.